September 29, 2007

Felix in September

Sorry about the relative dearth of photos (as opposed to movies). There are lots and lots of photos of course, but I try to save them up until I have enough to make a themed post. No real theme here, just a pleasant baby and his mother.

Movie: Not learning to walk

September 28, 2007

Movie: Spic and span baby, part 2

Following his successful conquest of the dishwasher (one in a series: see also Conquering the Oven), I thought he might turn his attention elsewhere, for example to the refrigerator or some other novel appliance with pleasingly cold steel surfaces. No, he wanted to show it was no fluke, so back he came for round 2. Which just goes to show: I never should have let him start on this in the first place. Emptying the dishwasher, previously a streamlined process in which, for the sake of speed, we didn't even sort the silverware, now takes a quarter hour, most of which is spent fishing Felix out of the lower dishrack.

Movie: Spic and span baby, part 1

He tried doing this the other day when the dishwasher was full of dirty dishes. (One tries hard to feed him only the purest of foods, then he goes ahead and gets his hands in a lot of half decomposed kitchen slops.) Obviously not something we want to encourage, but this was so cute I didn't have the heart to stop him.

September 27, 2007

More Feeding Felix

We have two big projects where Felix is concerned: teaching him to eat solids, and getting him to sleep through the night or something close thereto. In both arenas we have booked some success but teaching him to eat is a much more photogenic process, hence this update. Want the details? Here's the menu as it stands:

Movie: Learning to walk, part 1

September 19, 2007

Month Seven: August 19 - September 19

The tune of your name I carry around with me always, even when you are not with me. Even when I do not sleep enough and am angry and irrational (sorry Alec).

Aside from that, I'm at a loss of how to sum up this last month which is why now a week after your seventh month birthday I have yet to complete this month's round-up.

It's been one so full of changes for you, some you've taken to better than others. We've stopped feeding you through the night which was surprisingly easy. We got only a few nights of longer sleep from you, but even in the rest, you tend to fall back to sleep fairly quickly after you fuss for a bit.

You have a great new babysitter who plays with you three days a week. I am incredibly grateful for how well you have taken to Gosia.

You've been moving from breast milk to formula, without skipping a beat. You do seem to get a bit more worked up when anyone leaves the room you are in, and perhaps it's related. My parents, your grandparents, came to visit and one day while I was away, Saba remarked how it seemed pretty clear to him that you spent a lot of the time looking for me. Thanks baby! Here I am. The best is when we spend the whole day together, I briefly depart to fix a cup of tea or go to the bathroom, and upon my return, joy spreads across your entire being as if we’ve been apart for years. To me, that feels like love. I love that you are in love me. Hey, guess what? I’m in love with you too!

One of my favorite moments from this month was early one morning I was kneeling along the platform in the living room and you came to nibble on my heel. You still don't have any teeth so it feels very nice. I think that is one of the ways you express your love. You come crawling up to me, at times with great speed and need, as if you want us to be one again. I wonder if you can at all remember that safe warm feeling from the olden days. Fun thing is, you love being nibbled on just as much. We can elicit great big roars of laughter from you by chomping on your little love handles. I also love tossing you in the air maniacally yelling "yee haw" and not only do you burst into laughter you still adorably place both fists into your mouth like a mouth guard as though you are perfectly aware that what I'm doing is potentially slight dangerous. Dear, you still have no teeth to protect.

Every day this month I have tried to feed you "solid" food. We bought you a high chair and cleared a drawer to store all the bibs you received as gifts, yet, I've met resistance at every step and at every flavor and consistency. Rice cereal, banana, apple, carrot, spoon, finger, pureed, mushed, mashed, liquefied, chunky, whole, cooked, raw. Whatever it is barely and rarely makes past the tip of your tongue. Oh the gagging noises. Oh the impossible stains bananas make. Oh I can't believe it's been a month without any progress.

Lastly, I think your eye color is now settled and they seem to be quite unusual: considerably darker than any Friedman or Shuldiner and a deep shade of green. I guess we knew you were special from the very beginning when you came out with eyes that were so serious and focused.

Movie: If he eats all that...

If he eats all that how come he won't eat food? No, really, this morning we sat him down in his high chair and put two carrots and a piece of broccoli, well steamed and cooled, on his tray. He looked at them, looked at us, and then spent ten minutes pointedly ignoring them. If we had put two orange pieces of plastic and a green piece of plastic on his tray all three pieces would have been covered with baby spit within seconds. How does he know? Why does he care?